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Friday, August 20, 2004

LIFESPAN: COMICS Week Six

I'm back from WizardWorld Chicago which produced a box of new material that won't even make it to the stack, or the list this week. I sense an offshoot - Lifespan: Box o' Comics!

Anyway, I'm under the gun this week due to a bunch of stuff, and will be away again next week (personal time finally -- at the beach with the family for a few days), so we'll get right into it...

But, first, we've got Contest Winners! Thanks to everyone that wrote in, and from the group that responded, Logan, Bryan, and Todd were picked (completely arbitrarily) as the winners! They can look for Firebreather, Conversation #1 and Ursula -- randomly awarded -- to be heading to their homes this week! For everyone else that entered, I'm going to try to find a little something to send so, you keep reading, be patient, and don't say nasty things about me and the way I give stuff away ;)

New X-Men Volume 3 Hardcover (Morrison/Various): "I don't honestly care that much that Chris Claremont and other X-writers seem to be erasing everything Grant Morrison did with the X-Men, because I still have these great hardcovers to read and can ignore the stuff I don't like." - Chris Allen. Exactly, except for the last arc with Silvestri -- that shit made no sense. This is heading to the shelf to make sweet, sweet love to Volumes 1 and 2 and maybe they'll make great new Morrison stories in their union, on my shelf.

Essential Avengers Volume 4 TPB (Thomas/Buscema/Adams): A big fat book of Avengers goodness. This is the stuff. Heading to the shelf after a partial re-read to hang with my other Essential Volumes. I love this format, BTW.

PVP at Large (Kurtz): Figured I'd give it a skim, as I only ever read the stuff he did ripping into alterna-comics, and at first skim, it looks pretty unfunny. We'll see.

Star Wars Infinites: Return of the Jedi TPB (Gallardo/Benjamin): Great way to milk the series, these Infinites things... sucked me right in. The execution, thus far, has not exceeded the high concept, however. I remain pessimistic about this one (I did this past weekend, see all of the Clone Wars eps on a bootleg DVD, and that's some good stuff.).

Lone Wolf and Cub 3,4 (Koike/Kojima): Read 1, and 2 -- I'm in baby! I'm in! Now, to finish the series before the end of summer!

District X #4; Punisher #10; Doctor Spectrum #1; and Supreme Power #12. These should clear off the stack before too long; funny that they spun off the slowest moving series of Earth in the form of a Dr. Spectrum mini...

Legion: Foundations TPB (various): I haven't read Legion since it was called L.E.G.I.O.N and people still liked Lobo, so this was a fresh look for me. Good stuff, but not enough Darkseid for all the build up (and I love me some Darkseid). I'm giving this one away this week.

E-MAIL ME BETWEEN NOW AND MONDAY, AUGUST 30, AND I'LL PICK A WINNER AT RANDOM, LITERALLY, AND SEND THIS OUT... FREE! (YOU HAVE TO LIVE IN THE CONTIGUOUS UNITED STATES, THOUGH!)

Tommysaurus Rex (TenNapel): I read Creature Tech and found it lacking; This is stronger, tighter and more focused, but still not in my sweet spot. I will hold onto it though for future Rybandt Generations.

She-Hulk #6: I like this book better with Bobillo's pencils, but it's still a decent read; Man-Thing #2: I hope the movie moves faster than the first two issues of this has!; Loki #3: Beautiful! And Boring!; Fantastic Four #517: I miss the old way Marvel did cross-overs -- this "Disassembled" stuff is forced, and tries to paint the larger picture without showing any of the "consequence" in the cross-over books -- aside from that, a solid issue of Waid's FF after the weaker previous arc; Daredevil #63: Continued good stuff from BMB and Maleev, but this series just proves that monthlies should die and be replaced by complete collections (note I didn't say Trades); Ultimate Spider-Man #64: Oh god, there's a clone saga brewing. Only this time, it's an ULTIMATE CLONE SAGA; Powers #3: When did they make this weekly? Seems like I've been reading one a week, or every two weeks since the re-launch. Good stuff... but those personals still make me feel icky; Spider-Man #5: I like Cho's art, and this is a serviceable Spider-Man, but it all feels like it's just going through the motions, ya know?; Captain America: I'm torn -- on one hand, it's got Batroc, but on the other hand he doesn't talk in eez outrageous acc-ent!

These are all basement bound... never to be heard of again, until I off-load 'em.

Here's what's leaving the stack this week, and where it's going:

Marvel Boy TPB (Morrison/Jones): Yeah, it was ok, but I consider his work on X-Men to be essential Marvel Morrison, and this an interesting experiment... This is heading to the secondary TPB stacks in the basement.

Queen and County TPB's (Rucka/various): Plowed through Volumes 2, 3, and 4 (and picked up #5 in Chicago). Good stuff, but suffers slightly from wildly inconsistent (and in the case of Volume 3, wildly inappropriate) art. These are heading to the secondary TPB stacks in the basement.

Whiteout: Melt (Rucka/Lieber): Great stuff all around. Wish there was more than the two volumes so far, I could do easily with one a year. This is heading to the secondary TPB stacks in the basement.

Powers: The Sellouts (Bendis/Oeming): Gave this a quick re-read. It's funny, because when the first Powers TPB came out, I read, and hated it. However, each volume (and issue) has been some great comics all around. This volume is no exception. Smart stuff. This is heading to the shelf with the other volumes of Powers.

Sebastian O (Morrison/Yeowell): Read this on the plane. It's not essential Morrison, but it is a fun read and the TPB appears to have a bit of new material. This is heading to the secondary TPB stacks in the basement.

The Lizard of Oz (Bode): A beautiful looking book, but with an uninteresting and clichŽd story with boring sex. This is heading to the basement, amid the stacks of stuff to get rid of, somehow... someday.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind 1 and 2 (Miyazaki): I finally popped these on the plane and they're excellent. Highly Recommended. The whole set of these, when I'm finished, will stay to be read by my kid when she gets old enough and shows interest.

Lone Wolf and Cub 1,2 (Koike/Kojima): I'm not crazy about the size (they were convenient to bring on the plane, but hard to read on the plane), and I understand they work themselves out of the "kill of the week" that's predominant in these two volumes, so, I'm in, only, what, 25 more volumes to go? Holding onto each one as I finish for now, we'll see where the set ends up.

Joseph Rybandt has been working "professionally" in the comics "business" for close to 14 years. He lives in the mountains of Northern PA with his wife, daughter and companion Cosmo. His thoughts and opinions are, mercifully, his own.